The Navy: Battle of the Punch Bowl

Battle of the Punch Bowl

When the Navy decided to bring back the battleship five years ago, old hands could almost be heard humming Anchors Aweigh. Since then, two World War II- vintage battlewagons have been made ready for sea duty, and last week a third, the U.S.S. Missouri, was recommissioned in San Francisco as a crowd of 12,000 spectators cheered from its pier.

But no dreadnought is really shipshape, it seems, without a set of ceremonial silver. When the Missouri was mothballed back in 1955, ten years after the surrender ceremony ending World War II was held on her decks as she lay at anchor...